NY To Be 1st State to Ban Flavored E-Cigs in Emerging Public Health Issue

Published

1 month ago

on

11/13/2018

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By Howard M. Riell

Which will be the first state in the union to ban flavored e-cigarettes?

Leave it to New York to step forward and volunteer.

The state is moving forward with plans to ban the sale of flavored e-cig in order to take them out of the hands of youngsters, the Cuomo administration said last week.

“As the governor previously said, he’s very concerned about the rise in youth e-cigarette use and this administration is looking to do everything it can to curb this emerging public health issue,” Richard Azzopardi, a spokesman for Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, said in an email.

The Cuomo administration’s plans come as the federal government plans to require strict limits on the retail sale of most flavored e-cigarettes.

The state Department of Health published its proposals for banning e-cigarettes in the New York State Registry on Wednesday. The agency later withdrew them to allow more time for legal review. The regulations will be republished soon, the agency said. They could then be adopted after a 60-day period of public comment.

“Swift interventions are needed to protect our youth from a lifetime addiction to nicotine,” the agency said in its proposed rules for banning the sale of flavored vaping products.

Tony Abboud, executive director of the Vapor Technology Association, called New York’s proposal short-sighted and said it would be “devastating” to adult smokers trying to quit traditional cigarettes through use of flavored vapor products.

Citing recent data regarding young people using e-cigarettes, Food and Drug Administration commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in September that there’s an “epidemic of addiction” among youth, mainly driven by flavored products.

New York state health officials began tracking e-cigarette use in New York in 2014. Since then, use by high school youths increased from 10.5 percent to 27.4 percent in 2018, the health department said. “Swift interventions are needed to protect our youth from a lifetime addiction to nicotine,” the agency said in its proposed rules for banning the sale of flavored vaping products.

FDA officials told The Wall Street Journal that the move is an attempt to curb what many are saying is an epidemic of underage vaping. “What I can’t tolerate is another year of this level of growth,” FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in an interview Wednesday.

The new policy will apply to flavored cartridge-style vaping products like Juul that have become popular among youths, not the open tank-style systems sold in vape shops and mostly used by adults, officials told the Washington Post. “No retail outlets will be allowed to carry them unless it restricts minors from entering the store or creates an off-limits area.”